Should I Run My Car on Veggie Oil?

Should I Run My Car on Veggie Oil?
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

I have been carefully logging every trip we have taken in our veggie oil car for over two years. I also have tracked filter changes and estimated time until payback for our grease car conversion. However, I still cannot answer the most basic question that many people ask me "should I run my car on vegetable oil" ? It all depends. Are you okay with the filth involved in dealing with waste oil? Do you do occasional distance driving (ideal)? Do you have space to work? Can you be your own mechanic? What is more valuable your time, money, or the environment? How expensive is it to replace your injectors if you F* them up? I'll go ahead and share my stats below for others to come to their own conclusion about the financial savings. To sum up my own experience - I have driven 10,000 miles on veggie oil and saved $1,500 in diesel. At this rate my vehicle conversion will not be paid off for nearly seven years.

Vacuum Sealing Mason Jars

Vacuum Sealing Mason Jars
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

A few weeks ago we obtained a vacuum sealer from a yard sale. It did not include the mason jar sealing kit, but I went ahead and paid retail to obtain the accessory. Now I can seal up my coffee, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and other stuff we typically store in mason jars. This should help food store longer. There is a clever way to achieve this vacuum using the same accessory it using a automotive hand brake. I have also been considering making a system which could work to store 25 lbs of bulk food in a 5 gallon bucket with a vacuum.

Kombucha Bottles

Kombucha Bottles
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

No problems thus far with the Kombucha we have been putting into reused beer bottles. Initially we were concerned that the bottles might break from the carbonation. I find that the bottles make for a more readily drinkable kombucha with better carbonation than the other setups we have tried. We just bottled another batch yesterday and I'm keeping the temperature as close to 75F as I can for the bottles to maximize carbonation before refrigeration.

Double Pulser Desulfation

Double Pulser Desulfation
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

I'm trying a double pulsing charge / discharge process on some old Trojan golf cart batteries. The idea here is to trickle charge four 6V batteries in series using a capacitive charger while at the same time run my BatDLX desulfators which are using nearly the same amount of current as the charger is putting out. I'll let this run for a few days and then do some capacity testing. Both the charger and the desulfators are pulsing.

Kathy Hope Fermentation Workshop

Kathy Hope, founder of Iris Herbal came down from Taos to teach a fermentation workshop. It was fantastic! First we learned about the history of food and the diets of people who came before industrialized society. We talked about fermenting with whey, lacto and wild fermentation. Then we got hands on and made a salve, a tincture, liniment and fermented sauerkraut. Kathy is an excellent speaker and teacher and her herbal products are fantastic. We blogged not long ago about her deodorant which Mikey and I swear by. We also love her yarrow liniment and tinctures.I loved her extract record form, something she uses to track each thing she makes, and so I posted it for you. Bravo Kathy!

quilt show

I guess small town life would be incomplete without the quilt show. Makes sense if you think about it, without the hustle bustle of city life and pressure to work like a dog there's time for crafting and making things. These quilts were beyond impressive and took months to over a year to make. Oh la la!

Steel Primed

Steel Primed
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We managed to get all 24 pieces of square tubing primed up before the storms arrived last night. Next step, dig holes for posts.

Electric Organ

Electric Organ
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Wendy traded some yoga classes for this electric organ. Her band is now tinkering with it during practice sessions.

Scardy Cat Shiraz

Last week we bottled our second batch of homemade wine, a shiraz. For this label I hand drew the image because I really wanted it to look like our cat Scardy Cat.

Apricots - First Out the Gate

Apricots - First Out the Gate
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Our apricot trees are the first of our fruit trees to detect the coming of spring. The trees have been bogged down with unopened blossoms for weeks, but on March 1st we noticed that some of the blossoms on our two apricot trees have begun to open. Last year we harvest a measly half dozen apricots. Most of them were lost due to high winds knocking the fragile blossoms from the tree. This photo was taken using small magnifying loop available from SparkFun.

Garden Shade a Go

Garden Shade a Go
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We have started cleaning and priming the steel we purchased two weeks ago. These will be used as the structure to hold up our shade in four different areas of the yard. I've not made a CAD drawing yet, but we have a loose plan for setting up a 10' wide 20' long piece of shade in the south facing garden area. We think that this will be our primary hang out during the warm weather months.

Century Plant Stalk

Century Plant Stalk
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We needed to free up a wood jig to start our summer shade project. The century stalk we harvested less than one year ago needed to be relocated so we could start cleaning the steel beams and priming them with paint. The stalk was light enough that I carried it across the yard on my own and had no trouble setting it in the hole. Rather than use concrete to stabilize the stalk we just hydrated some heavy clay. Let's see what happens.

Photos from originally harvesting the stalk (July 2009)

Curtains for Lots of Conditions

I've been working on these curtains for about a month now and finally finished. When we first moved in I made help curtains that did not offer us much in terms of insulation and deflection of the harsh west sun. The new curtains are designed to provide black out when we want to make the room dark and the silk iridescent liner asks as mylar by deflecting the sun. I used vintage wood rings to hang them. They were a lot of work to attach by hand but worth it. And finally. . . I'm done! Sigh. . . .

Scardy Cat Shiraz

Scardy Cat Shiraz
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We warned you that it was coming. Our second round of wine making has also been a success. Thirty more bottles were filled and capped this weekend with the help of our neighbor Andy. We are getting the hang of this. Stayed tuned for the new logo.

Happy Doomsday!

Happy Doomsday!
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Those of you who know me already have learned what a fan I am of the doomsday in your head calendar trick. It is a simple method for calculating the day of the week for any day in any year. I've tried to explain it in person to most of my friends, but it is difficult to grasp that way. This site does a pretty good job teaching you how it works.

(from wikipedia)
"It takes advantage of the fact that within any calendar year, the days of 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, 10/10, 12/12, and the last day of February always occur on the same day of the week—the so-called "doomsday" (and furthermore that other months have "doomsday" on the pairs 5/9 and 9/5 as well as 7/11 and 11/7..."

Giant Bird Almost Eats Giant Frog

Giant Bird Almost Eats Giant Frog
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

On most mornings I see a Great Blue Heron hanging out in the park as Sesame and I do our morning walk. During our walk yesterday I noticed something enormous in it's mouth. I thought it was a fish and was looking forward to watching this amazing bird devour it's meal. Unfortunately, a truck pulled into the park nearly hitting the bird and scaring it away. The bird dropped what was in it's mouth and I went over with Sesame to investigate. Turned out to be a enormous frog that was till alive, but pretty badly wounded from the bird. Why does everyone have to drive their damn truck in the park?

Compost Tea

Compost Tea
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Two of our evergreen trees are looking rather yellow in color. It was suggested to us that we get our soil tested to understand the nutrient deficiency. We already know that our property is deficient in virtually all nutrient since it is just a old parking lot on top of land fill. We came to the conclusion to add more compost in liquid form to the trees. A few balls of well composted material put into a 5 gallon bucket of water and mixed then applied to both trees is our approach. We will continue this treatment once a week for the next month and see if the trees start to show a healthier color.

Veggie Dumplings

Veggie Dumplings
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Wendy had a craving for wonton soup which somehow turned into making vegetable dumplings. These came out delicious. Finely chopped vegetable scraps from the fridge rolled up in dumpling dough and briefly fried. This might just be a new staple in our diet. We normally make our own pasta, raviolis, and spanakopita dough so making our dumpling dough in the future should be a easy addition. They are only made from flour and water with a brief set period of 15-30 minutes.

Worms, Worms, Worms!

Worms, Worms, Worms!
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

The better part of our afternoon was spent digging through worm castings. The new garden bed needed some compost from our worm bins, but we wanted to return the worms their home so they can deal with our next round of compost.

Kombucha Bottling

Kombucha Bottling
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

We bottled up two small batches of kombucha this morning. Using beer bottles that are not designed for high pressure and metal lids which can corrode is less than ideal. I placed all the bottles into a plastic cooler in case we get a explosion during the next 24 hours as we let the bottles go into their anaerobic fermentation. I'm going to refrigerate after this point and I think we should be able to avoid the exploding beer bottle scenario as long as the kombucha doesn't warm up.

Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

Our new beverage cooler that Wendy's Dad gave her. I find it motivational. It was probably on sale.

Vending Machines with Issues

Vending Machines with Issues
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar

A recent trip to El Paso to pick up Wendy from the airport allowed me to check out some unusual vending machines.

Botanical Drawing Tip for Preservation

I just started doing botanical drawings. Wendy Hollender's Workbook Botanical Drawing A Beginners Guide has been a great help to me. While trying to figure out a way to preserve a plant and also see it from top to bottom (root to top of plant) while drawing it. I cut a hole in a piece of cardboard and placed it over a tall glass of water. I put the plant root through the hole and into the water. This sample has been alive and well for over a week.